One last chance to say goodbye.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shortchanged millions of students across the country of their final semester of the school year. Many seniors didn’t have a chance for the closure that they deserve.

However, a few recent Tamaqua Drama Club graduates will have one final opportunity for a culmination of their high-school theatrical careers. The group of nine will perform “Almost, Maine” at Center Stage Theatre inside of the Tamaqua Community Arts Center on July 18-19.

“We all obviously were devastated when ‘Newsies’ was canceled,” said Adriane Drum, Director of the Tamaqua Drama Club. “ I just felt like they didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to the stage or anyone at the end of the year. We kind of came up with this crazy idea to do something on a smaller scale just so they can have that opportunity.”

The stars aligned for one more show. The arts center, located on Pine Street in Tamaqua, had availability due to the cancellation of many shows.

“This type of production is a lot different from our previous ones which were obviously pretty large,” Drum said.

“This one is not a musical, it’s a smaller show comprised of vignettes which allowed us to do it safely. There’s only about two people in each scene. That allowed us to practice distancing not having a big group there.”

Drum said the theater is allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity, which would total 75 seats. The audience must wears mask until seated.

“We put this together in six weeks. They typically only came when they practiced their certain scene. This is the first week that they’re all there together. It’s a cast of nine, so it’s very small and manageable, which allowed for safe rehearsals.”

The cast includes Amelia Cassell, Kipp Tonkin, Lottie Mateyak, Nathaniel Noftz, Zach Frie, Jocelyn Rega, Sarah Frantz, Maddie McGlinchey and Ethan Turrano.

“I’ve been blessed. Our program is grades 7-12, so a lot of the kids have been pretty experienced. The seniors know what’s expected. For this show it was kind of like these are the scenes, it’s up to you to rapidly learn your lines.”

Show times are at 2 and 7 p.m. on both dates. Tickets can be purchased at the door or by calling the Tamaqua Community Arts Center office.

Virtual tickets via Zoom are also available.

“It was a lot of individual work so that we can make it happen in a short amount of time,” Drum added.